This invention is an improvement over the arrangement for monitoring the operating temperature of resistive heating elements in cooking appliances disclosed in the above-referenced U.S. Pat. No. 4,443,690 and co-pending application Ser. No. 438,622. In the disclosed arrangements a heater energy counter is used in lieu of a sensor to provide approximate heating element temperature information to the control system to implement various transient and steady state power control modes for a cooking appliance such as a range. However, in these systems no provision is made for informing the user of the status of the surface unit.
It would be desirable to provide a user discernible signal to indicate to the user that heating element being used has reached its steady state temperature level. Such information may be of use to the user in certain cooking operations.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an improvement to a control system for household cooking appliances employing resistive heating elements of the type which provides approximate heating element temperature information without temperature sensor feedback to provide a user discernible signal signifying that the heating element has reached the steady state temperature associated with the user selected power setting.